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Leuba 


The  moral  nature  of  the  child  in 
relation  to  moral  education 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


ETHICAL  ?rf:..  l^^ 

ADDRESSES 


Vol.  XIV.      No.  lo 


AND  ETHICAL  RECORD 

The  Moral  Nature  of  the  Child 
in  Relation  to  Moral  Education 

James  H.  Leu  p.  a 


Moral  Instruction  in  the 
Public  Schools 

Alice  L.  Seugsberg 


Ethical  Construction  as  Prepara- 
tion for  Ethical  Instruction 

Robert  A.  Woods 
Constitution  of  American  Ethical  Union 


Published  Monthly:  ETHICAL  ADDRESSES 
1415  LOCUST  STREET,  PHILADELPHIA 
YEARLY,  $1.00  SINGLE  COPY,  10  CTS, 

)  (Entered  at  Philadelphia  as  second-clas*  matter) 


AN   ETHICAL  YEAR  BOOK 

A  SENTIMENT  IN  VERSE  FOR  EVERY  DAY  IN* 
THE  YEAR.    Compiled  by  Walter  L.  Sheldon. 

"The  collection  is  designed  for  those  who  would  like  to 

have  Scriptures  in  verse The  art  of  poetry,  like 

that  of  music,  speaks  for  the  sentiments  natural  to  the  hu- 
man soul." — From  Prefatory  Note. 

"For  thirty  years  Mr.  Sheldon  has  gleaned  from  the  great  poets 
their  noblest  expression  of  the  ethical  life,  and  has  embodied  the  result 
of  this  long  labor  of  love  In  this  volume.  He  has  used  rare  discrimina- 
tion in  selecting  passages  that  ring  strong  and  true  with  brave,  cheerful, 
elevating  thought.  There  If  an  uplifting  sentiment  offered  for  each  day 
In  the  year.  Apart  from  the  enjoyment  of  the  literary  excellence  of  the 
quotations,  no  thoughtful,  aspiring  person  could  absorb  the  thousand- 
souled  message  of  this  assemblage  of  authors  without  gaining  strength 
and  fortitude  of  spirit  for  the  battle  of  life." — ^W.  H.  S.  in  The  Public. 

Half  Cloth,  50  cents ;  five  copies  to  one  address  $2.00. 

INTERNATIONAL  JOURNAL  OF  ETHICS  FOR  JULY 
CONTENTS: 

The  Relation  of  Theological  Dogma  to  Religion.  0.  A.  Shrub- 
sole.  Reading',  England. 

Some  Facts  of  the  Practical  Life  and  Their  Satisfaction. 
Marlow  Alexander  Shaw,  University  of  Missouri. 

Ethical  Aspects  of  Economics.  III.  W.  R.  Sorley,  Univer- 
sity of  Cambridge. 

Has  Sociology  a  Moral  Basis?    F.  Carrel,  London. 

The  Ought  and  Reality.  Jolin  E.  Boodin,  Univei-sity  of  Kan- 
sas. 

Some  Essentials  of  Moral  Education.  Harrokl  .Tohnson,  Lon- 
don. 

Self-Realization  as  the  Moral  End.  Herbert  L.  Stewart, 
Canicklcrgns,  Ircdand. 

The  Psychology  of  Prejudice.  .losiah  Morse,  Clark  Univer- 
sity. 

Book  Reviews. 


ETHICAL  ADDRESSES,  1415  Locust  Street,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 


iHr.  Salter  H.  ^fjeltion 

The  death  of  Mr.  Walter  L.  Sheldon,  on  June  5th, 
after  an  illness  of  ten  months,  is  a  most  serious  loss,  not 
only  to  the  St.  Louis  Society  but  to  the  whole  Ethical 
Movement.  Mr.  Sheldon  founded  the  Society  in  St. 
Louis  twenty-one  years  ago,  and  his  great  ability,  in- 
tense earnestness  and  whole-souled  devotion  as  its  leader 
and  lecturer,  have  made  it  one  of  the  largest  and  strong- 
est of  all  the  Ethical  Societies. 

An  appreciation  of  Mr.  Sheldon's  life  and  work  will 
be  given  in  a  future  number. 


.h.n 


W\ 


THE  MORAL  NATURE  OF  THE  CHILD 

IN  RELATION  TO  MORAL 

EDUCATION- 

By  Professor  James  H.  Leuba,  Bryn  Mawr  College. 

Allow  me  to  remind  you  that  the  human  being  is  both 
physical  and  psychical — he  has  a  body  as  well  as  a  mind — 
and  that  therefore  factors  of  two  orders  psychical  and 
physical  are  to  be  considered  in  ethical  education. 

I  shall  not  dwell  long  upon  the  relation  existing  between 
the  physical  and  the  moral.  The  time  when  consigning 
the  body  to  Hell  was  thought  to  be  a  way  of  saving  the 
soul  is  past.  It  is  now  recognized  and  acknowledged  that 
in  a  very  intimate  sense  body  and  mind  are  one,  and  are 
damned  or  saved  together.  But,  we  have  only  begun  to 
realize  the  extent  to  which  our  conduct  is  rooted  in  quali- 
ties and  propensities  of  our  bodily  organism.  We  have 
not  even  made  a  start  toward  learning  how  to  modify  un- 
desirable qualities  and  propensities  by  physical  means; 
yet,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that,  did  we  only  know  how, 
temperament  itself  could  be  modified  by  the  right  use  of 
the  proper  kind  of  foods  and  drugs  taken  early  and  long 
enough.  We  are,  however,  learning  the  disastrous  in- 
fluence upon  mental  and  moral  growth  of  common  de- 
fects of  sight  and  of  hearing,  of  adenoid  growths,  of 
chronic,  irritating  discharges  from  mucous  membranes,  of 
insufficient  nutrition.    In  a  few  cities  a  determined  and  in- 


*Address  before  the  Moral  Education  Conference,  held  under 
the  auspices  of  the  American  Ethical  Union,  New  York,  May  ii, 
1907. 

287 


883271 


2SS  THE   MORAL   NATURE  OF  THE  CHILD. 

telligent  effort  is  being  made  to  remedy  these  physical 
evils,  or,  where  they  cannot  be  cured,  to  place  the  children 
in  classes  fitted  to  their  condition.  If  anyone  among 
you  is  tempted  to  think  that  I  am  giving  undue  weight  to 
these  slight  physical  disorders,  let  him  take  the  trouble 
of  informing  himself  on  the  mental  retardation,  and  even 
permanent  stupidity,  engendered*  by  the  presence  of,  for 
instance,  adenoid  growths.  In  this  city,  which  by  reason 
of  its  size,  of  its  wealth,  and  of  its  scientific  resources, 
should  be  in  the  lead,  what  is  being  done  as  well  as  the 
necessity  for  it  may  be  gathered  from  the  following  ab- 
stract from  the  report  of  Superintendent  Maxwell: 

"Up  to  a  comparatively  recent  date  the  Health  Department  of 
the  city,  in  its  examination  of  school  children,  confined  its  energy 
to  the  detection  of  contagious  disease,  and  to  the  temporary  ex- 
clusion of  pupils  suffering  from  such  disease.  Except  in  Man- 
hattan, the  work  of  the  Health  Department  in  the  schools  is  still 
so  limited.  When  Dr.  E.  J.  Lederle  was  commissioner  of  health 
a  beginning  was  made  in  the  examination  of  children  in  Man- 
hattan to  discover  defects  which  retard  physical  development  and 
intellectual  progress.  Under  Dr.  Thomas  Darlington  this  work 
has  been  continued  and  extended.  During  the  year  1906,  78,401 
children  were  examined;  and  the  following  are  some  of  the  re- 
sults : 

No.  of  cases  of  bad   nutrition    4,921 

No.  of  cases  of  enlarged  anterior  glands   29,177 

No.  of  cases  of  enlarged  posterior  glands  8,664 

No.  of  cases  of  chorea  ii38o 

No.  of  cases  of  cardiac  disease  1,096 

No.  of  cases  of  pulmonary    disease    757 

No.  of  cases  of    skin    disease    i,558 

No.  of  cases  of  deformed  spine 424 

No.  of  cases  of  deformed  chest    261 

No.  of  cases  of  deformed  extremities  550 

No.  of  cases  of  defective  vision 17,928 

No.  of  cases  of  defective    hearing    869 

No.  of  cases  of  defective    nasal  breathing  11,314 

No.  of  cases  of  defective     teeth    39,597 

No.  of  cases  of  deformed   palate     831 

No.  of  cases  of    hypertrophied  tonsils    18,306 

No.  of  cases  of  posterior  nasal  growtlis   9,438 

No.  of  cases  of  defective    mentality     1,857 


THE  MORAL   NATURE  OF  THE  CHILD.  289 

"The  total  number  found  to  require  medical  or  surgical  treat- 
ment was  56,259,  out  of  78,401  examined.  The  great  majority 
requiring  treatment  were  among  those  backward  in  studies,  from 
one  to  five  years  behind  the  grade  to  which,  on  account  of  age, 
they  would  naturally  belong.  Experience  has  amply  demonstrated 
that  when  a  child  is  intractable  or  deficient,  and  is  at  the  same 
time  suffering  from  a  removable  physical  cause,  the  removal  of 
that  cause  almost  immediately  works  a  wonderful  change,  both 
in  deportment  and  ability.  If  any  way  could  be  devised  by  which 
all  children  suffering  from  the  maladies  reported  by  the  Health 
Department  could  have  proper  medical  and  surgical  treatment, 
not  only  would  such  children  be  enormously  benefited,  but  the 
present  school  facilities  could  be  utilized  to  much  better  advan- 
tage." 

I  pass  on  to  the  consideration  of  moral  education  deal- 
ing directly  with  the  psychic  nature  of  man,  and  I  begin 
with  a  truism. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  conduct  nothing  more  can 
be  desired  for  a  man  than  that  he  should  know  at  any  par- 
ticular moment  what  he  ought  to  do  and  how  to  do  it,  and, 
that  he  should  have  the  physical  and  moral  energy  to  make 
a  start  and  continue  to  the  end.  Ethical  training  is  to 
strive,  then,  toward  two  more  or  less  distinct,  and  yet 
never  to  be  isolated,  ends:  (i)  The  enlightenment  of  the 
will.  In  itself  the  will  is  blind.  Knowledge  is  required 
in  order  that  we  may  judge  aright.  Power  without 
knowledge  is  a  curse.  (2)  The  creation  or  the 
stimulation  of  appreciation  of  the  good,  the  bemtti- 
ful  and  the  true — an  appreciation  so  clear  and  so  zngorons 
that  contacting  tendencies  zvill  be  overpoza^ered.  For  the 
knowledge  of  the  right  is  not  sufficient  for  its  perform- 
ance. To  this  insufficiency  every  day  of  our  lives  testi- 
fies. To  knowledge  must  be  added  the  enthusiastic  tem- 
per, the  devotion,  the  love,  which  dissipate  opposition 
whether  it  comes  from  within  or  from  without.  "No  heart 
is  pure  that  is  not  passionate ;  no  virtue  is  safe  that  is  not 
enthusiastic,"  says  the  author  of  "Ecce  Homo." 


290  THE  MORAL   XATURE  OF  THE  CHILD. 

Knowledge  and  pozver,  or,  if  I  may  be  allowed  to  use 
devotion  as  a  synonym — knowledge  and  devotion  is,  as  I 
understand  it,  the  double  aim  of  moral  education. 

Knowledge  of  what  is  right  is  obviously  the  first  re- 
quirement of  good  conduct.  It  is  therefore  natural  that 
the  intellectual,  or,  if  you  please,  the  formal  side  of  edu- 
cation should  have  been  the  first  to  occupy  the  attention 
of  ethical  philosophers.  From  the  time  of  the  Greeks  to 
our  own  days  they  have  searched  for  what  they  termed  the 
siumnum  bonum.  In  their  pre-occupation  about  this  they 
have  forgotten,  meanwhile,  the  dynamic  problem.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  one  whole  school  of  ethics  practically  denies 
the  dynamic  problem.  It  affirms  that  clear  knowledge  of 
the  right  is  all  that  is  wanted.  In  opposition  to  this  in- 
tellectualistic  point  of  view,  Christianity  declared  that 
salvation  is  not  by  knowledge  but  by  Faith ;  and,  it  found 
in  Love  the  principle  of  perfect  life.  Knowledge,  said  the 
Greeks ;  faith,  love,  devotion,  says  Christianity,  hold  the 
key  to  the  ideal  life. 

The  task  before  us  to-day  in  the  education  of  the  young 
is  to  unite  these  two  meanings.  And  since  our  knowledge 
of  what  is  right  is  far  in  advance  of  our  practice,  the  more 
urgent  problem  is  to  find  ways  and  means  of  generating  a 
spirit  of  positive  and  ardent  devotion  to  moral  ideals.  It 
is  the  more  pressing  problem  for  two  reasons :  Our  actual 
moral  ideals,  however  defective  they  may  be,  will  thereby 
be  sooner  realized  and  the  more  effective  way  to  increase 
our  knowledge — or  to  lead  to  its  increase — is  the  prac- 
tice of  that  which  at  the  present  moment  seems  best.  The 
greatest  defect  of  our  ethical  training  is  not  so  much  its 
failure  to  teach  what  righteousness  is,  and  to  point  out 
that  which  is  righteous,  as  it  is  its  failure  to  aim  at  the 
production  of  moral  power.     In  intellectual  education  we 


THE   MORAL   NATURE  OF  THE  CHILD.  29I 

have  until  recently  failed  in  a  corresponding  manner.  The 
end  pursued  was  to  impart  information,  knowledge ; 
while  it  is  now  generally  admitted  that  the  primary  pur- 
pose should  be  to  create  interest  and  develop  mental 
powers.  The  more  important  improvements  which  have 
lately  taken  place  in  our  schools,  have  proceeded  from  the 
change  of  mind  just  indicated.  The  aim  of  all  instruction, 
not  essentially  technical  or  industrial  in  its  purpose,  should 
be,  with  regard  to  intellectual  culture,  to  create  interest, 
and  develop  mental  powers,  and  with  regard  to  moral 
courage,  to  stimulate  a  sense  of  ethical  values  and  to  in- 
duce devotion  to  ideals  of  life. 

It  is  often  said  that  the  task  of  the  teacher,  in  so  far 
as  he  is  concerned  with  conduct,  is  the  formation  of  good 
habits.  Yes,  good  habits  should  be  formed.  Habits  make 
a  second  nature.  We  want  children  to  have  good  moral 
habits.  But  to  set  up  the  establishment  of  habits  as  the 
end  of  moral  education  involves  a  lamentable  contraction, 
limitation,  restriction,  of  the  energies  of  life.  Make  of 
someone  a  bundle  of  habits  and  you  rob  him  of  the  most 
precious  possessions  of  man.  You  convert  a  spontaneous 
being  into  an  automaton :  you  drive  out  the  spirit  to  make 
the  machine :  you  do  away  with  reflective  morality.  Moral 
habits  as  the  end  of  ethical  education  would  lead  to  a 
state  of  society  like  that  of  classical  China. 

The  Christian  religion  in  its  various  branches  has  tried, 
in  its  own  way,  to  provide  for  the  development  of  ethical 
power.  It  has  appealed  to  the  impulses,  aspirations,  af- 
fections, and  emotions.  The  lay  school,  on  its  side,  took 
up  as  its  task  the  imparting  of  knowledge  by  arid  intellec- 
tual methods.  The  two  aims  must  be  united — I  do  not 
say  the  two  methods.  How  can  this  be  done?  How  can 
the  school  education  be  made  to  develop  mental  power  and 


292  THE  MORAL   NATURE  OF  THE  CHILD. 

moral  vigor?  That  is  the  problem  before  our  people, 
and  more  directly  before  our  boards  of  education. 

Having  reached  this  point,  I  have  practically  finished  my 
task,  since  it  was  intended  by  the  makers  of  the  program 
that  I  should  open  the  discussions  of  the  day,  and  that  the 
other  speakers  should  tell  us  how  the  several  branches  of 
the  school  curriculum  should  be  used  in  order  tO'  serve  the 
true  purpose  of  education.  Before  closing,  however,  I 
wish  to  make  a  general  remark  concerning  one  of  the 
principles  which,  it  seems  to  me,  should  guide  us  in  this 
task.  Man  is  an  ethical  being  because  he  is  a  social  be- 
ing. If  every  individual  lived  in  isolation  there  would  be 
no  morality,  at  least  not  the  morality  of  which  we  are  now 
speaking.  If  morality  is  a  social  product,  if  the  moral 
sense  is  the  outcome  of  social  life,  then  moral  aspiration 
and  moral  enthusiasm,  and  also  moral  knowledge,  arise 
in  community  life  out  of  the  social  relations.  There  is  no 
other  school  of  morality  than  life.  From  the  point  of 
view  of  ethics,  the  school  should  consist  of  devices  for 
bringing  to  the  children  a  greater  variety,  and  a  larger 
number  of  effective  experiences  than  would  otherwise  fall 
to  his  lot.  It  should  further  seek  to  provide  these  experi- 
ences in  such  a  way,  and  under  such  circumstances,  that 
the  child  should  understand  their  meaning  and  feel  their 
potency.  At  this  point,  I  shall  let  Professor  John  Dewey 
continue  and  conclude  the  remarks  I  wish  to  make : 

*Tn  the  schoolroom,"  says  this  philosopher  and  educa- 
tor, "the  mortise  and  the  cement  of  social  organization 
are  alike  wanting.  Upon  the  ethical  side,  the  tragic  weak- 
ness of  the  present  school  is  that  it  endeavors  to  prepare 
future  members  of  the  social  order  in  a  medium  in  which 
the  conditions  of  the  social  spirit  are  eminently  wanting." 
"We   must   conceive   of   work   in   wood   and   metal,   of 


THE  MORAL   NATURE  OF  THE  CHILD.  293 

weaving,  sewing,  and  cooking  as  methods  of  life,  not  as 
distinct  studies.  We  must  conceive  of  them  in  their  social 
significance,  as  types  of  the  processes  by  which  society 
keeps  itself  going,  as  agencies  for  bringing  home  to  the 
child  some  of  the  primal  necessities  of  community  life,  and 
as  ways  in  which  these  needs  have  been  met  by  the  grow- 
ing insight  and  ingenuity  of  man." — "The  School  and 
Society,"  John  Dewey,  University  of  Chicago  Press,  pp. 
27  and  28. 


MORAL  INSTRUCTION  IN  THE 
PUBLIC  SCHOOLS* 

By  Alice  L.  Seligsberg. 

According  to  the  curriculum  prescribed  by  the  Board 
of  Education  for  the  elementary  schools  of  this  city,  eth- 
ics is  to  be  included  in  the  work  of  every  grade.  More- 
over, the  Board  has  gone  so  far  as  to  provide  a  syllabus  in 
ethics,  for  the  use  of  teachers.  But  although  the  syllabus 
has  marked  merits,  it  is  held  by  the  teachers  to  be  inade- 
quate, for,  in  the  first  place,  it  does  not  tell  them  how  to 
carry  out  the  advice  it  offers ;  and  in  the  second  place,  it 
does  not  take  into  account  the  fact  that  virtuous  and  in- 
telligent men  and  women,  are  not  by  virtue  and  intelli- 
gence alone  fitly  equipped  to  teach  ethics.  Because  the 
syllabus  gives  but  vague  instead  of  clear  and  detailed 
suggestions,  and  because  the  Board  has  not  considered  the 
need  for  special  preparation  on  the  part  of  teachers  of 
ethics;  therefore  we  find  that  ethics  appears  as  a  rule 
only  on  zvritten  programs,  that  seldom  if  ever  are  courses 
in  the  subject  planned  and  followed  in  the  public  schools. 

In  order  to  make  clear  from  the  start  just  what  is  the 
thesis  I  wish  to  elaborate  in  the  following  paper,  let  me 
say,  that  owing  to  the  lack  of  a  specially  prepared  body  of 
instructors,  I  am  opposed  to  the  immediate  introduction  of 
a  systematic  course  of  ethics  into  the  schools ;  but  that  in- 
asmuch as  direct  ethical  communications  must  needs  and 


*Paper  read  before  the  Moral  Education  Conference,  under  the 
auspices  of  the  American  Ethical  Union,  at  New  York,  May  ii, 
1907. 

294 


MORAL   INSTRUCTION'   IN   THE  PUBLIC   SCHOOLS.       295 

do  take  place  in  every  class-room,  between  teacher  and 
pupils  individually  or  en  masse,  on  such  subjects  as  disor- 
der, the  punishment  of  culprits,  promotions,  lack  of  con- 
centration, indolence,  etc.,  therefore  I  think  it  is  well,  for 
the  time  being  to  utilize  and  develop  what  already  exists 
in  a  rudimentary  state.  I  think  it  advisable  for  us  to  move 
forward  slowly,  until  we  have  prepared  the  special  teach- 
ers without  whom  it  is  vain  to  attempt  to  give  a  syste- 
matic course.  In  conclusion  I  wish  to  suggest  means  for 
preparing  these  special  teachers. 

To  begin  with,  then,  let  me  state  my  objection  to  the 
immediate  introduction  of  an  elaborate  course  of  ethics 
into  the  public  schools,  even  granted  that  such  a  course 
has  been  carefully  planned  in  detail  for  the  help  of  teach- 
ers. As  one  of  the  speakers  at  the  first  convention  of  the 
Religious  Education  Association  said  in  1903 :  "Moral  or 
ethical  knowledge  no  more  comes  naturally  of  itself  to  the 
teacher  than  to  any  one  else ;  and  especially  if  it  is  to  be 
presented  to  others  must  it  be  learned  in  some  orderly  and 
systematic  way.  The  possession  of  personal  morality  no 
more  qualifies  for  teaching  morality,  than  does  the  fact 
that  I  personally  (as  far  as  anybody  knows)  possess  a 
perfect  outfit  of  bones,  muscles,  arteries,  veins,  lungs,  etc., 
qualify  me  to  be  demonstrator  in  anatomy  in  a  university 
medical  school."  Moreover,  the  sort  of  teaching  that  is 
based  on  syllabi  or  textbooks  in  the  teacher's  hands  can- 
not be  effective.  To  be  effective,  the  lessons  must  be  the 
outcome  of  the  teacher's  own  experiences  of  life.  There- 
fore we  must  try  to  get  the  teacher  to  follow  a  course  of 
reasoning  and  self-searching  and  observation  that  will 
bring  him  to  the  conviction  of  the  truth  and  the  import- 
ance of  the  lessons  he  is  to  impart.  Any  less  personal 
preparation  will  result  in  flat  lessons,  that  will  in  the  long 


296      MORAL   INSTRUCTION   IN   THE  PUBLIC   SCHOOLS. 

run  create  contempt  among  the  children  and  weary  dis- 
taste for  whatever  goes  by  the  name  ethics.  It  seems  to 
me  that  the  evils  which  result  from  poor  teach- 
ing are  in  proportion  to  the  closeness  of  the  re- 
lation between  the  study  taught  and  the  life  of 
the  student;  and  that  inasmuch  as  ethics  is  a 
partial  revelation  of  the  ways  of  life,  the  winding  ways 
that  lead  from  causes  to  their  effects  in  the  inner  and 
outer  worlds,  therefore  this  particular  study  bears  a  most 
intimate  relation  to  life;  and  therefore  a  poor  ethics 
teacher  is  likely  to  do  more  harm  than  a  poor  teacher  of 
physics,  mathematics,  geography,  history,  etc.  Hence  we 
ought  not  to  permit  anyone  and  everyone,  prepared  or 
unprepared,  to  try  his  hand  at  teaching  ethics;  and  we 
ought  not,  by  introducing  ethics  into  the  schools  on  an 
extensive  scale  before  teachers  are  prepared  for  the  pur- 
pose, to  set  in  motion  a  force  whose  course  it  will  be  hard 
to  control. 

But,  let  us  ask  ourselves,  is  the  thing  we  wish  eventu- 
ally to  introduce  already  present  in  a  rudimentary  state? 
And  can  we  build  up  on  what  we  have  at  hand?  In 
other  words,  are  there  any  questions  of  conduct,  which, 
by  the  very  circumstances  of  school  life,  teachers  are 
compelled  to  discuss  with  their  pupils,  and  on  which  they 
already,  often  unconsciously,  give  more  or  less  well-con- 
ducted lessons?  If  so,  is  it  not  a  comparatively  simple 
matter  to  train  teachers  to  give  those  ethics  lessons  well 
which  so  many  now  give  poorly?  Instead  of  at  once  im- 
posing a  fully  planned  ethics  course  from  without,  can  we 
not  find  the  nucleus  of  such  a  course  already  in  the 
schools?  Let  me  illustrate  my  meaning.  There  is  prob- 
ably no  teacher  who  has  not  at  some  time  found  it  nec- 
essary to  explain  to  the  children  just  why  they  are  held 


MORAL   INSTRUCTION   IN   THE  PUBLIC   SCHOOLS.       297 

to  silence  and  order  during-  the  school  session.  Since  this 
is  the  case,  why  not  see  to  it  then  that  the  teacher  her- 
self understands  the  subjective  as  well  as  the  practical 
value  of  discipline,  and  is  provided  with  a  series  of  les- 
sons through  whose  aid  she  can  in  the  first  place  make 
her  conclusions  clear  to  the  children,  and  in  the  second 
place  can  win  the  children  over  emotionally,  so  that  they 
will  be  eager  to  test  their  own  powers  of  self-control. 
It  seems  to  me  that  this  kind  of  help  might  be  given  to 
the  teachers  who  desired  it,  in  classes  or  conferences  es- 
tablished for  the  purpose.  It  is  not  enough  to  say,  as  do 
so  many  of  the  syllabi  that  I  have  seen :  Give  lessons  on 
obedience,  order,  etc.  We  must  show  the  teacher  how  to 
go  to  work.  A  two-fold  responsibility  rests  upon  those 
who  urge  the  introduction  of  even  a  transitional  course 
of  ethics  into  the  schools;  they  must  first  deal  with  the 
teacher  as  a  student  to  whom  the  principles  underlying 
given  situations  must  be  made  clear;  and  then,  d-.aling 
with  the  teacher  as  a  teacher,  they  must  supply  him  or  her 
with  material  for  ethical  lessons. 

But  whence  is  this  material  to  be  drawn  ?  Perhaps  the 
first  thought  that  comes  to  most  of  us  in  reply  is  that  our 
material  must  consist  largely  of  stories — historical,  bio- 
graphical, or  purely  imaginative — in  prose  or  in  verse. 
Indeed  many  persons  think  that  the  successful  teaching  of 
eth'-cs  to  the  young  depends  on  the  variety  and  beauty  of 
the  illustrative  incidents  at  the  teacher's  disposal.  With- 
out a  large  supply  of  stories  they  fear  they  could  not  teach, 
for  not  only  is  the  story  the  centre  from  which  they  work, 
but  it  is  also  often  the  circumference  of  their  work.  But, 
I  should  like  to  ask,  do  stories  really  influence  our 
conduct?  Sometimes,  but  not  often,  at  any  rate  not  so 
often  as  we  incline  to  think  they  do.    Of  course  they  do 


298      MORAL   INSTRUCTION   IN   THE  PUBLIC   SCHOOLS. 

influence  us  in  so  far  as  they  acquaint  us  with  the  stan- 
dards of  the  best  men  of  all  times,  and  thus  become  part 
of  our  environment.  But  it  seems  to  me  that  at  crucial 
moments,  stories  influence  us  only  when  we  find  parallels 
in  our  own  lives  to  the  experiences  narrated.  This  is  so 
with  adults,  and  it  is  so  with  children.  A  man 
may  be  emotionally  affected  by  the  tragedy  of  King  Lear, 
and  having  an  analytic  mind,  may  see  that  one  cause  of 
the  tragedy  was  the  old  King's  love  of  flattery ;  yet  that 
very  reader  may  never  discern  that  he  himself,  in  his  re- 
lations with  employes  or  pupils  or  friends,  betrays  the 
same  defect,  and  that  it  is  bound  to  influence  his  fate  dis- 
advantageously,  perhaps  tragically  too.  Or  a  boy  may  read 
Tom  Brown's  Schooldays  twenty  times,  and  wish  he 
might  have  gone  to  Rugby,  and  have  been  under  a  head- 
master like  Arnold,  without  ever  being  inwardly  affected 
by  his  admiration.  For  just  as  though  he  had  never 
read  the  book,  he  may  continue  to  take  part  in  brutal  haz- 
ing, may  continue  to  believe  that  teachers  and  pupils  must 
be  natural  enemies.  So  it  is  with  many  of  the  stories 
children  hear  at  school.  These  fail  to  have  a  moral  effect, 
because  no  transition  has  been  made  from  the  stor)'  to  the 
life  of  the  hearer.  Pray  do  not  misunderstand  me.  I  do 
not  mean  that  the  moral  of  the  story  is  to-  be  pointed  out. 
I  mean  only  that  the  story  is  to  be  regarded  as  a  bit  of  life, 
to  which  we  can  find  parallels  in  our  own  experience.  Take 
the  story  of  the  brothers  who  quarreled  and  whose  father 
sent  them  a  bundle  of  fagots  to  break,  first  tied  together  in 
a  bunch,  and  later  unbound,  in  order  to  prove  to  them  that 
in  unity  lies  strength.  I  wonder  whether  this  much  used 
tale  has  ever  led  any  other  than  the  first  hearers  to  over- 
come dissensions?  The  way  to  use  that  story,  it  seems 
to   me,   is   to   refer   definitely   to    some    work — say   the 


MORAL   INSTRUCTION   IN   THE  PUBLIC   SCHOOLS.       299 

presentation  of  a  play,  or  the  management  of  a  school 
paper — where  a  group  in  which  private  differences  are  ig- 
nored, can  resist  dissolution  better  than  a  group  divided 
into  self-assertive  individuals. 

In  fact  we  must  get  most  of  the  material  for  ethical 
lessons  from  life,  especially  from  the  child's  experiences 
of  life;  and  must  rather  use  the  story  as  an  illustration  or 
a  summing  up  of  these  experiences.  To  take  a  few  ex- 
amples from  the  many  questions  that  arise  at  school  and 
need  illuminating,  let  me  cite  the  following: 

I. — ^^^^at  is  the  use  of  uncongenial  studies?  (Lesson 
on  self-reliance.) 

2. — What  are  the  avoidable  obstacles  to  punctuality? 

3. — Unequal  talents  and  the  award  of  medals  and  prizes. 

4. — The  giving  of  presents  to  teachers. 

5. — Boys'  fights. 

6. — Shall  Ave  appoint  monitors? 

7. — What  can  the  teacher  learn  about  her  pupils  when 
they  are  off-guard — e.  g.,  during  study  hours,  recess,  be- 
fore and  after  school?  (This  is  to  show  that  manners 
may  be  an  expression  of  qualities  of  character.) 

8. — Asking  for  help. 

9. — Prompting,  or  giving  the  wrong  sort  of  help. 

These  and  many  more  are  the  subjects  of  immediate 
and  common  interest  to  teacher  and  class,  that  can  be  and 
in  fact  frequently  are  used  as  starting  points  of  serious 
communications. 

As  has  been  said  before,  if  the  lessons  are  to  be  given 
with  spirit,  the  teacher  ought  first  to  be  convinced  of  the 
correctness  and  importance  of  the  conclusions  she 
is  about  to  teach  and  ought,  moreover,  to  have 
a  wader  view  of  the  subject  and  -deeper  insight 
into    the    very    heart    of    the    matter    than    can    be    re- 


300      MORAL   INSTRUCTION   IN   THE  PUBLIC   SCHOOLS. 

vealed  to  children.  For  instance,  before  outlining  for  the 
teachers  a  series  of  lessons  on  tale  bearing  (snitching  or 
tattling,)  adapted  to  use  in  their  classes,  we  must  first 
try  to  dispel  the  fog  that  fills  most  minds  as  soon  as  we 
put  the  question  as  to  the  wisdom  or  folly  of  permitting 
or  requesting  children  to  report  offenders.  And  we  must 
also  point  out,  if  we  can,  that  the  problem  arising  at  school 
whenever  there  is  a  conflict  between  loyalty  to  a  teacher 
to  whom  a  report  seems  to  be  due,  and  loyalty  to  com- 
rades, is  not  a  unique  and  isolated  question,  but  one  that 
comes  up  again  and  again  in  adult  life  with  only  a  change 
of  setting.  To  show  how  hazy  are  our  views  on  some  of 
the  matters  with  which  we  must  deal,  whether  we  will  or 
not,  let  me  tell  of  a  discussion  that  took  place  some  time 
ago  among  a  group  of  teachers,  on  the  question  above 
mentioned,  to-wit:  Is  it  ever  wise  to  allow  or  to  induce 
children  to  tell  tales  on  one  another?  The  opinions  at 
first  voiced  were  almost  unanimously  against  reporting, 
for  the  reason  that  it  encouraged  a  critical,  malicious  or 
hypocritical  spirit.  Nearly  all  the  teachers  asserted  that 
they  had  told  their  classes  that  they  would  not  pay  any  at- 
tention to  tales.  One  teacher,  however  declared  that 
it  was  sometimes  necessary  to  listen  to  complaints ;  she 
had  found  that  she  could  not  always  ignore  them ;  on  the 
other  hand,  realizing  the  wrong  motives  that  frequently 
lead  to  tale  bearing,  she  had  notified  her  pupils  that  where- 
soever she  found  it  necessary  to  punish  a  culprit  against 
whom  a  comrade  had  informed,  she  would  also  punish  the 
tale  bearer.  By  making  tattling  a  punishable  offense  she 
hoped  to  prevent  tattling,  and  yet  at  the  same  time,  in 
case  there  were  any  tattling,  to  preserve  her  liberty  to 
punish  the  misdemeanors  complained  of.  There  was  one 
teacher,  indeed,  who  believed  it  was  sometimes  wise  to 


MORAL  INSTRUCTION   IN   THE  PUBLIC   SCHOOLS.       3OI 

induce  children  to  report  one  of  their  number.  When 
asked  to  be  more  expHcit,  she  said :  "When  any  serious 
evil  has  arisen."  But  on  probing  deeper  it  became  evi- 
dent to  all  that  they  could  not  invariably  distinguish  be- 
tween serious  and  less  serious  evils ;  in  school,  as  in  the 
world  outside,  under  certain  conditions  it  was  wiser  not 
to  report  grave  offenses.  Moreover,  they  agreed  that  it 
would  be  unwise  to  leave  the  discriminating  between 
weights  to  children.  Taking  into  account  these  varieties 
of  opinion,  this  confusion  of  thought  in  regard  to  an  im- 
portant subject,  must  we  not  admit  that  after  all,  before 
we  speak  to  our  classes,  it  is  necessary  for  us  to  discover 
the  principles  on  which  our  conclusions  are  or  ought  to  be 
based?  It  is  for  this  reason  that  I  suggest  the  holding 
of  conferences  with  teachers,  in  which  questions  of  school 
ethics  can  be  discussed,  and  in  which,  after  conclusions 
have  been  reached,  methods  of  presenting  the  conclusions 
to  children  will  be  worked  out. 

The  fact  that  particular  occurrences  have  been  used  as 
the  bases  or  starting  points  of  talks  to  the  class,  must  not 
be  taken  to  imply  that  the  lessons  are  to  be  occasional  or 
incidental.  On  the  contrary,  I  think  it  is  often,  though 
not  always,  far  more  efficacious  to  have  the  class  and  the 
teacher  exchange  views  frankly  on  a  subject  when  no  par- 
ticular occasion  has  arisen  that  calls  them  forth.  For 
if  the  teacher  brings  up  a  matter  just  when  it  is  associated 
in  the  minds  of  the  pupils  with  some  fault  or  shortcoming 
of  a  suspected  group  or  individual,  his  ulterior  purpose  is 
scented,  the  class  becomes  reserved  and  suspicious,  the 
teacher  self-conscious. 

Although  at  the  present  time  it  would  be  worse  than 
useless  for  us  to  introduce  into  the  schools  more  than  a 
transitional  course  in  ethics,  nevertheless  we  may  look  for- 


302       MORAL   INSTRUCTION   IN  THE  PUBLIC   SCHOOLS. 

ward  to  the  day  when  this  rather  fragmentary  course  may 
become  an  entering  wedge  for  the  completer  more  sys- 
tematic course  which  is  contingent  upon  our  having  a 
trained  body  of  instructors.  Before  I  close,  I  should  like 
to  ask :  Are  there  any  steps  which  we  can  take  toward  the 
creation  of  such  a  teaching  force?  Two  means  of  prepar- 
ing teachers  occur  to  me,  the  first  indirect,  the  second  di- 
rect. In  the  first  place,  we  must  gradually  provide  a 
great  mass  of  published  material  for  ethical  lessons,  from 
which  each  teacher  can  choose  whatever  makes  a  strong 
or  convincing  appeal  to  him  or  her.  An  attempt  has  al- 
ready been  made  in  that  direction  in  England,  by  the 
Moral  Instruction  League.  Such  a  league  should  be 
formed  in  this  country,  first  for  the  purpose  of  collecting 
old  and  publishing  new  material,  and  translating  whatever 
of  value  along  these  lines  has  appeared  in  foreign  lan- 
guages; and  secondly,  for  the  purpose  of  establishing 
normal  courses  for  teachers,  the  direct  means  of  prepar- 
ing teachers  to  which  I  referred  a  moment  ago.  Given  a 
mass  of  printed  material,  syllabi  and  the  like,  without 
teachers  qualified  to  use  them,  and  the  books  will  be  stones 
instead  of  bread.  We  need  a  normal  course  that  will  pre- 
pare special  teachers  to  use  the  books  in  the  right  way, 
a  course  of  more  than  short  duration,  conducted  by  men 
who  have  devoted  themselves  to  this  kind  of  work.  Such 
a  course  should  include,  among  other  things : — the  study 
of  the  great  religious  and  moral  teachers  of  the  past,  the 
study  of  juvenile  literature,  the  study  of  the  moral  prin- 
ciples on  which  rest  the  economic  and  social  issues  of  the 
day,  besides  psychology,  methods  of  teaching  and  prac- 
tice in  planning  and  giving  lessons ;  perhaps  even  the 
study  of  the  various  conditions  of  home,  school,  social, 
business  and  practical  life  in  the  various  classes  of  so- 


MORAL   INSTRUCTION    IN    THE    PUBLIC   SCHOOLS      303 

ciety — for  different  points  must  be  emphasized  in  teaching 
the  different  nationaUties  represented  in  our  schools — and 
still  other  very  serious  matters  need  special  emphasis  in 
the  schools  attended  by  the  children  of  the  rich. 

Now  the  preparation  of  books  and  syllabi,  and  the  train- 
ing of  teachers  will  take  time ;  but  if  the  work  is  worth  do- 
ing at  all,  it  is  worth  doing  in  the  right  way, 
and  this  is  the  patient  way.  Is  not  our  task 
too  great  for  haste?  Can  we  be  too  careful  in  ac- 
cumulating our  materials?  Too  deliberate  in  laying  foun- 
dations? Oh  that  the  people  of  our  country  could  once 
learn  the  lesson — 

"Of  labor  that  in  lasting  fruit  outgrows, 
Far  noisier  scliemes,  accomplished  in  repose, 
Too  great  for  haste,  too  high  for  rivalry." 

Let  us,  in  undertaking  the  new  task,  not  to  be  too  eager  for 
immediate  results,  let  us  not  presume  to  teach  the  children 
that  which  we  have  not  even  tried  to  learn  how  to  teach ; 
let  us  not  as  we  have  done  so  often  hitherto,  build  an  in- 
verted pyramid  fore-ordained  to  ruin ;  let  us  slowly  lay  a 
sure  foundation,  in  order  that  the  future  will  not  need  to 
tear  down  what  we  have  raised. 


ETHICAL   CONSTRUCTION   AS   PREP- 
ARATION FOR  ETHICAL 
INSTRUCTION* 

By  Robert  A.  Woods. 

The  mind  has  its  being  in  the  fulfillment  of  relation- 
ships. Mental  action,  we  learn,  is  never  complete  without 
a  process  of  the  will  confirming  the  interests  which,  when 
carried  into  action,  make  the  person  what  he  is.  Person- 
ality is  never  properly  revealed  to  itself  until  it  is  lost 
in  action  in  the  midst  of  the  unexpected  contretemps  of 
nature  or  of  human  affairs. 

Nothing  is  fully  learned  until  it  is  conceived  affirma- 
tively and  as  an  object  of  pursuit.  The  mind  is  but  little 
shaped  and  guided  except  when  it  is  molten  and  in  flux. 
It  is  in  the  field  of  things  craved  and  striven  for  instinc- 
tively and  spontaneously  that  the  educator's  best  oppor- 
tunity lies.  Hence  the  rising  belief  in  the  distinctly  cul- 
tural value  of  vocational  studies,  a  precise  reversal  of  the 
older  theory  that  little  such  result  could  be  gained  out  of 
studies  that  called  for  action. 

It  is  a  mistake  to  endeavor  both  to  arouse  and  to  shape 
human  impulse  at  the  same  time  and  in  a  single  effort. 
The  newly  elicited  impulse  is  not  sufficiently  assertive  to 
bear  the  pressure  of  being  shaped.  It  dies  down  under 
such  an  eflfort.  The  aversion  to  ethical  instruction  is  often 
based  on  sound  natural  instinct.  The  discerning  educator 
will  be  satisfied  for  a  time  to  bring  to  the  surface  healthy 


*Read  before  the  Conference  on  Moral  Education  held  under 
the  auspices  of  the  American  Ethical  Union,  New  York,  May  ii, 
1907. 


ETHICAL    CONSTKUCTIOX    AND    INSTRUCTIOX.  3O5 

human  impulses,  and  will  bide  his  time  about  the  most  ef- 
fective directing  of  them.  He  will  apply  his  efforts  for 
more  largely  ethical  results  to  those  motives  in  which  per- 
sonality is  most  alive  and  alert.  He  will  seek  to  find  hu- 
man nature  out  in  the  open  and  under  full  cry  before  un- 
dertaking to  lead  the  way  to  the  quarry. 

Such  ethical  leadership  cannot  be  accomplished  at  arm's 
length.  It  can  come  about  only  through  participation, 
and  in  a  real  sense  absorption,  in  the  momentum  of  the 
personality  which  is  to  be  influenced.  Working  with  peo- 
ple rather  than  for  them  is  psychological  as  well  as  demo- 
cratic. The  currents  of  their  lives  must  be  conceived 
dynamically  and  must  be  actually  swung  out  into.  The 
people  must  lay  hold  on  truth  with  power  in  order  to  learn 
at  all.  Those  who  would  teach  the  people  must  know 
and  be  in  and  of  that  power.  A  common  dynamic  basis 
for  personal  interests  and  strivings  is  essential  to  that  in- 
sight and  influence  which  can  come  at  the  heart  of  things. 

There  is,  of  course,  in  every  person  a  large,  impene- 
trable element  of  temperament,  understood  often  least  of 
all  by  the  person  himself,  the  resultant  of  age-long  her- 
edity; yet  a  considerable  proportion  of  what  usually  goes 
for  temperament  in  every  life  is  found  to  be  not  unintelli- 
gible to  the  dynamic  participant  in  that  life.  When  the 
whole  range  of  personal  ties,  interests,  hopes,  achieve- 
ments, defections  is  known  and  felt,  a  great  part  of  the 
mystery  is  dissipated.  If  the  ethical  motive  is  present  in 
the  participant,  concrete  and  easily  possible  steps  begin 
instantly  to  indicate  themselves,  and  what  to  the  outside 
and  superficial  observer  is  merely  the  alteration  of  en- 
vironment is  seen  by  the  participant  to  be  effectual  growth 
of  character  and  spirit. 

There  is  thus  an  essential  difference  between  the  two 


306         ETHICAL    CONSTRUCTION    AND    INSTRUCTION. 

types  of  social  refonners  who  may  seem  to  be  dealing 
with  much  the  same  facts.  One  is  engaged  in  creating  a 
better  framework  and  scaffolding  for  a  more  or  less  ab- 
stract humanity.  The  other  is  penetrating  at  least  into  the 
outer  intrenchments  of  personality. 

Among  these  outer  intrenchments  of  the  man's  person- 
ality, often  leading  far  in  toward  the  citadel  of  his  life, 
are  his  home,  his  neighborhood,  his  vocation,  his  recrea- 
tion, his  race,  his  religion,  his  citizenship.  To  shape  the 
issues  of  his  life  in  these  different  bearings  is  to  settle  al- 
most inevitably  how  he  shall  morally  confront  the  world, 
and  is  in  great  part  to  fix  his  moral  destiny.  The  building 
up  through  vital  participation  step  by  step  of  moralized 
experience  must  be  the  beginning  and  end  of  social  ser- 
vice, and  must  more  and  more  be  seen  to  be  the  larger  ele- 
ment in  conscious  and  determinate  moral  education. 

The  fundamental  consequence  of  a  moral  order  in  the 
elementary  structure  of  the  home  life,  as  well  as  the  fact 
that  this  moral  order  comes  by  experience  rather  than  pre- 
cept, is  perhaps  sufficiently  suggested  by  the  reflection 
that  the  religions  of  the  world  presuppose  it  and  take  it 
for  granted.  The  great  figures  of  speech  in  which  the 
principles  of  Christianity  are  expressed  are  taken  out  of 
the  normal  relations  of  family  and  neighborhood,  and  its 
principles  cannot  be  grasped  except  as  one  has  been 
wrought  into  the  fabric  of  these  intense  human  groups. 
The  conception  of  God,  and  the  moral  values  which  go 
with  that  conception,  can  hardly  be  except  as  one  has  the 
conception  of  fatherhood,  and  the  family  sense  comes  only 
through  experience.  Recently  at  one  of  the  settlement 
houses  a  very  bright  little  girl  with  keen  dramatic  sense 
could  not  be  induced  to  act  affectionately  toward  the  lik- 
able young  man  who  was  playing  the  part  of  the  father. 


ETHICAL    CONSTRUCTION    AND    INSTRUCTION.         307 

The  explanation  came  out  afterward.  The  Httle  girl's 
father  was  a  brute,  abusing-  the  child  and  her  mother.  It 
would  require  some  unusual  circumlocution  to  arouse  in 
this  little  girl's  mind  the  thought  of  the  All-Father. 

The  moral  effect  of  want  and  congested  conditions  in 
weakening  the  ties  of  mutual  respect  and  consideration 
in  the  family  are  very  great.  Francis  Place,  a  man  who 
came  to  have  important  political  influence  in  England  in 
the  days  of  the  Reform  Bill  movement,  but  in  his  earlier 
years  had  been  afflicted  with  extreme  poverty,  wrote : 
"Nothing  conduces  so  much  to  the  degradation  of  a  man 
and  a  woman  in  the  opinion  of  each  other,  and  of  them- 
selves in  all  respects — but  most  especially  of  the  woman 
— than  her  having  to  eat  and  drink,  and  cook  and  wash 
and  iron,  and  transact  all  her  domestic  concerns,  in  the 
room  in  which  her  husband  works  and  in  which  they 
sleep." 

The  moral  support  and  stimulus  of  neighborhood  ac- 
quaintance is  realized  by  every  one  as  he  goes  away  to  an 
entirely  strange  place.  The  first  sense  of  loneliness  out- 
lines itself  a  little  later  in  the  consciousness  that  some  of 
the  most  important  props  to  the  moral  life  have  been  re- 
moved, and  one's  feeling  of  moral  strength  is  for  the  time 
distinctly  lowered.  This  moral  situation  is  one  in  which 
many  thousands  of  our  city  people  must  exist  for  long 
periods,  and  while  thus  weakened  and  exposed  many  of 
them  inevitably  make  moral  shipwreck  of  their  lives. 

In  these  respects  the  immigrants,  set  in  families,  are 
usually  not  so  much  in  peril  as  that  large  population,  pre- 
dominantly native,  in  all  our  cities  which  lives  in  lodgings, 
where  almost  the  last  vestige  of  home  tie  and  of  neigh- 
borhood restraint  and  incentive  has  disappeared.  The 
moral  problem  of  the  thousands  of  young  men  and  young 


3o8         ETHICAL    CONSTRUCTION    AND    INSTRUCTION. 

women  engaged  in  commercial  pursuits  who  lead  this 
dreary  lodging-house  existence  is  one  of  constantly  in- 
creasing seriousness. 

The  home  and  the  neighborhood  is  the  moral  menstruum 
in  which  the  young  life  is  immersed,  and  from  which  it 
takes  its  character.  When  they  are  seriously  disintegrat- 
ed, whether  in  outward  fact  or  in  sentiment,  we  are  face  to 
face  with  the  most  fundamental  ethical  problem  with  re- 
gard to  that  young  life.  The  setting  the  child  in  rightly 
ordered  currents  of  family  and  neighborhood  intercourse 
will  provide  in  innumerable  instances  the  substantial 
correction  of  tendencies  which,  let  alone,  make  develop- 
ment in  character  an  impossibility.  I  am  not  referring 
now  to  such  outward  hygienic  conditions  as  are  a  mini- 
mum essential  to  his  growth  into  normal  physical  adult 
life,  but  to  the  accumulated  experience  of  homely  affec- 
tion and  virtue  as  a  part  of  the  very  atmosphere  of  the 
little  social  group  of  which  he  is  a  part;  experience  of 
personal  cleanliness,  of  thrift,  of  system  and  order,  of 
good  humor,  of  good  fellowship,  of  care  for  the  weak  and 
admiration  for  the  strong,  of  industry  and  skill,  of  whole- 
some and  whole-hearted  recreation,  of  loyalty  and  adora- 
tion. Most  of  these  things  are  learned  by  the  child,  and 
laid  hold  upon  deeply  by  the  man,  not  as  the  result  of  spe- 
cific instruction  but  through  the  endless  ways  of  concrete 
suggestion,  imitation,  and  trying  out  in  action  intimations 
that  rise  out  of  the  subconscious  being. 

The  whole  scheme  of  work  for  neighborhood  improve- 
ment in  our  cities  where  the  neighborhood  social  struc- 
ture has  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  broken  down  has  to  do 
with  establishing  a  democratic  method  for  reconstituting 
the  web  of  local  ethical  relationships.  This  is  done  largely, 
it  is  true,  by  the  creation  of  certain  new  and  artificial  ties, 


ETHICAL    CONSTRUCTION    AND    INSTRUCTION.         3O9 

under  the  initiative  of  resourceful  new  comers  into  the 
neighborhood,  and  through  the  organization  of  forms  of 
social  life  before  unknown  ;  but  all  such  work  has  its  vital 
meaning  in  the  endeavor  to  secure  by  direct  contact  or  by 
reaction  a  revival  of  moral  and  moralizing  reciprocity  be- 
tween husband  and  wife,  between  parents  and  children, 
among  brothers  and  sisters,  among  neighbors  and  friends. 

Every  man's  personal  economic  problem  for  him  is  in- 
separable from  his  problem  of  duty.  His  calling  in  life, 
his  productive  labor,  his  earnings,  his  capacity,  his  power 
as  a  consumer  are  matters  which  not  only  in  their  outcome 
but  in  their  process  decisively  and  consciously  must  de- 
termine much  of  his  moral  character.  Every  turning 
point  in  the  course  of  the  workman's  life,  particularly  in 
these  days  of  highly  associated  industry,  involves  critical 
problems  of  personal  duty;  in  the  break-down  of  the  old 
leaders  to  the  master  workman,  the  confusion  as  to  the 
possibility  of  zeal  for  good  work,  the  maintenance  and 
advancement  of  the  standard  of  wages  and  of  life,  the 
association  of  workmen  to  protect  and  advance  their  inter- 
ests in  an  industrial  system  where  association  is  the  domi- 
nant force,  the  pervading  scepticism  as  to  the  justice  of  the 
existing  economic  order  and  the  claim  of  a  great  ill-de- 
fined but  well-nigh  universal  outreaching  toward  a  higher 
type  of  industrial  civilization.  These  issues,  which  seem 
to  some  of  us  to  have  to  do  only  with  the  superficial  en- 
vironment of  human  life,  for  vast  numbers  of  men  and 
women  are  penetrating  into  the  very  bones  and  marrow  of 
their  personal  being. 

Another  great  element  of  our  people,  not  so  important 
perhaps  from  the  point  of  view  of  their  influence  but  quite 
as  great  in  number,  spend  much  of  the  spontaneous,  insis- 
tent energy  of  their  lives  in  the  search  for  recreation.    It 


310         ETHICAL    CONSTRUCTION    AND    INSTRUCTION 

was  a  wise  man  of  old  who  said,  "If  I  could  but  write  the 
songs  of  a  nation  I  care  not  who  should  make  its  laws." 
To  the  realistic  ethical  insight,  the  popular  print,  the 
drama,  the  concert-hall,  the  dance,  the  cafe,  the  excursion 
resort,  constitute  the  great  matrix  in  which  the  moral  life 
of  much  of  the  future  American  nation  is  being  cast. 

The  fact  that  the  nation  has  its  growth  so  largely  by 
immigration  brings  it  about  that  loyalties  of  race  and  of 
religion  create  among  us  a  variety  of  special  ethical  issues 
whose  effect  on  personal  character  and  moral  progress  is 
profound.  Bound  up  with  impulses  deeply  embodied  in 
the  different  human  types,  these  issues  from  their  very 
nature  must  be  affected,  if  affected  at  all,  by  the  gradual 
building  up  of  ethical  reciprocity  upon  a  basis  entirely 
apart  from  that  on  which  these  sides  of  life  rest.  The  type 
of  agency  for  social  reconstruction  which  is  wholly  neu- 
tral as  to  points  of  conflict  between  the  different  races 
and  religions  is  essential  to  the  building  up  of  such  a 
measure  of  common  national  and  human  consciousness  as 
must  lie  at  the  basis  of  all  well  proportioned  personal 
moral  growth. 

The  training  of  our  people,  and  particularly  of  the  new 
generation,  in  the  art  of  making  quickly  a  large  number 
of  human  adjustments  so  as  to  work  in  tune  with  different 
kinds  of  people  and  groups  different  in  motive  and  ex- 
tent is  a  kind  of  moral  discipline  which  refers  more  par- 
ticularly than  any  other  to  the  precise  needs  of  the  pres- 
ent day  and  of  the  immediate  future.  If  morality  has  to 
do  with  what  vitally  is,  if  its  watchword  is  not  constraint 
but  opportunity,  the  greatest  of  all  moral  sanctions  is  that 
which  has  to  do  with  entering  largely  and  deeply  into 
human  association  with  all  its  undeveloped,  undreamed 
of  potentialities  for  the  enrichment  and  expansion  of  hu- 
man life,  for  the  fulfillment  of  human  destiny. 


CONSTITUTION    OF  AMERICAN    ETHICAL   UNION.       3 II 


CONSTITUTION 

OF    THE 

AMERICAN    ETHICAL    UNION 

AS  AMENDED  MAY  11,   1907. 


Article  I. — Name. 

The  name  of  this  organization  is  "The  American  Ethical  Union," 
and  the  same  is  organized  by  the  Society  for  Ethical  Culture  in  the 
City  of  New  York,  th|e  Society  for  Ethical  Culture  in  the  City  of  Chi- 
cago, the  Society  for  Ethical  Culture  in  the  City  of  Philadelphia,  the 
Ethical  Society  of  St.  Louis  and  the  Society  for  Ethical  Culture  of 
Brooklyn,  and  shall  be  composed  of  the  Societies  named  and  such  other 
Societies  for  Ethical  Culture  and  similar  organizations  as  may  be  ad- 
mitted to  the  American  Ethical  Union  as  hereinafter  provided. 


Article   XL — Objects. 

Section  1.  Th'e  General  Aim  of  the  Union  is :  To  assert  the  supreme 
importance  of  the  ethical  factor  in  all  the  relations  of  life — personal, 
social,  national  and  international,  apart  from  any  theological  and  meta- 
physical considerations. 

Section  2.  The  Special  Aims  are :  (a)  To  bring  the  organizations 
in  the  Union  into  closier  fellowship  of  thought  and  action,  (b)  To  pro- 
mote, and  to  assist  in,  the  establishment  of  ethical  organizations  in  all 
sections  of  the  United  States,  (c)  To  organize  propaganda  and  to  ar- 
range ethical  lecturing  tours,  (d)  To  publish  and  spread  suitable  lit- 
terature.  (e)  To  promote  ethical  education  in  general  and  systematic 
moral  instruction  in  particular,  apart  from  theological  and  metaphysical 
presuppositions,  (f)  To  promote  common  action,  by  means  of  Special 
Congresfe'es  and  otherwise,  upon  public  issues  which  call  for  ethical 
clarification,  (g)  And  to  further  other  objects  which  are  in  harmony 
with  thie  General  Aim  of  the  Union. 


312      CONSTITUTION    OF   AMERICAN    ETHICAL   UNION. 

Article  III. — Membership. 

Section  1.  Every  member  of  a  Society  for  Ethical  Culture  which  Is 
a  constituent  part  of  the  American  Ethical  Union  shall  be  ipso  facto  a 
member  of  the  Union. 

Section  2.  The  Executive  Committee  shall  have  power  to  elect  to 
honorary  membership  such  persons  as  it  may  consider  entitled  to  rec- 
ognition on  account  of  distinguished  services  rendered  to  the  cause  of 
ethical  progress. 

Article  IV.     Government  and  Organization. 

Section  1.  The  government  of  the  American  Ethical  Union  shall  be 
vested  in  an  Annual  Assembly,  which  shall  be  composed  of  (a)  the  offi- 
cial Leaders  and  Associate  Leaders  of  the  several  Societies  belonging  to 
the  Union  ;  and  (b)  delegates  chosen  by  these  Societies  and  duly  certified 
by  their  respective  Secretaries. 

Section  2.  Each  Society,  whatever  the  number  of  its  members,  shall 
be  entitled  to  one  delegate,  and  to  one  additional  delegate  for  every 
fifty  members  or  fraction  thereof. 

Article  V. — Finances. 

Each  constituent  Society  shall  contribute  to  the  funds  of  the  Union  a 
sum  not  less  than  three  per  centum  of  its  annual  subscriptions  from 
regular  members  and  such  further  sums  as  its  governing  Board  may 
deem  wise. 

Article  VI. — Executive   Committee. 

Section  1.  An  Executive  Committee  shall  be  crieated  at  each  Annual 
Assembly,  which  shall  manage  the  affairs  of  the  Union  in  the  interim 
between  Assemblies.  This  Ex;ecutive  Committee  shall  consist  of  fif- 
teen members,  five  of  whom  shall  be  chosen  by  the  vote  of  a  majority 
of  the  leaders  and  associate  leaders  representing  constituent  Societies  in 
the  Union,  and  ten  of  whom  shall  be  elected  at  the  Annual  Assembly  by 
the  delegates  present. 

Section  2.  The  Ex;ecutive  Committee  shall  choose  its  Chairman. 
Secretary  and  Treasurer.  The  order  of  business  at  each  annual  or 
special  meeting  shall  be  provisionally  determined  by  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee, and  reported  on  its  behalf  at  the  opening  of  each  meeting  ;  but 
shall  at  all  timjes  be  subject  to  modification  and  control  by  the  main 
assembly. 

Section  3.  The  Assembly  of  Delegates  shall  be  called  to  order  by 
the  Chairman  of  the  Executive  Committee,  or,  in  his  absence,  such 
other  person  as  the  Executive  Committee  shall  have  appointed,  and 
such  Chairman  or  appointee  shall  continue  to  act  as  provisional  presi- 


CONSTITUTION    OF  AMERICAN    ETHICAL   UNION.       313 

dent  of  that  Assembly  until  the  Assembly  shall  have  elected  a  presiding 
oflBcer.  A  motion  for  the  election  of  such  President  shall  always  be  in 
ordjer. 


Article  VII.     Standing  Committee  on  Fellowship. 

Section  1.  The  American  Ethical  Union  shall  create  annually  a 
Standing  Committee  on  Fellowship.  It  shall  consist  of  nine  persons, 
five  of  whom  shall  be  chosen  by  the  Leaders  of  Societies  belonging  to 
the  Union  and  four  of  whom  shall  be  elected  at  the  Annual  Assembly. 
The  duty  of  this  Committee  shall  be  to  receive  all  applications  of  per- 
sons seeking  official  recognition  by  the  Union  as  Ethical  Teachers  or 
Leaders,  and  of  Societies  desiring  to  secure  membership  in  the  Union. 
These  applications  shall  be  carefully  considered  by  this  Committee  of 
Ftellowship  and  its  judgment  respecting  the  acceptance  or  rejection  of 
such  applications  shall  be  reported  at  the  following  Assembly  of  the 
Union.  In  the  form  of  a  recommendation  for  final  action  by  that  body. 
The  Standing  Committee  on  Fellowship  shall,  al.so,  on  receipt  of  any 
complaint  against  the  moral  character  of  an  already  recognized  Ethical 
Teacher  or  Leader,  or  against  the  action  of  any  Society  already  belong- 
ing to  the  Union,  investigate  the  charges,  give  the  accusied  person  or 
Society  an  opportunity  for  defense,  decide  upon  the  casie  and  present  its 
decision  in  the  form  of  a  recommendation  to  an  Annual  Assembly  or  spe- 
cial meeting  for  final  action  ;  notice  of  such  recommendation  shall  be 
included  In  the  call  of  the  meeting. 

Section  2.  A  three-fourths  vote  of  delegates  present  shall  be  re- 
quired for  reversal  or  important  modification  of  the  recommendations 
of  that  Committee. 


Article  VIII. 

Any  person  officially  recognizjed  by  the  Union  as  an  Ethical  Teacher 
or  Leader  may  withdraw  from  that  association  with  the  Union,  at  any 
time,  upon  written  notice  to  the  Committee  on  Fellowship.  Any  Society 
belonging  to  the  Union  may  withdraw  from  such  membership  at  any 
time  by  sending  a  written  statement  to  the  Committee  on  Fellowship 
duly  attested  by  at  least  three  officials  of  the  Society  and  showing  that 
a  majority  of  the  members  of  said  Society  desire  such  withdrawal. 


Article  IX. — Meetings. 

Section  1.  There  shall  be  a  regular  convention  of  the  Union  onoe 
in  each  year,  at  such  time  and  place  as  the  Executive  Committee  may 
designate,  of  which  meeting  at  least  thirty  days  previous  notice  to  each 
Society  shall  be  given. 

Section  2.  Special  Aasemblies  may  be  called  by  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee upon  like  notice,  when  in  their  judgment  it  may  be  necessary. 


314      CONSTITUTION    OF   AMERICAN    ETHICAL   UNION. 

but   no  busine.5s   shall   be  transacted   at  such   special   Assemblies   except 
such   as   shall  be  stated   in  the  call   for   such  Assembliies. 

Section  3.  One-third  of  the  whole  number  of  delegates  whose  cre- 
dentials have  been  filed  and  accepted  by  the  Assembly  shall  constitute 
a  quorum. 

Article  X. — Amendments. 

This  Constitution  may  be  amended  at  any  regular  Assembly  by  a 
three-fourths  vote  of  the  whole  number  of  delegates,  accredited  and 
accepted,  present  at  the  Assembly. 


OFFICERS  of  the 
AMERICAN  ETHICAL  UNION 


Elected  May  IIth^  1907. 


EXECUTIVE  COMMITTEE. 

Cliairman  :     Professor  E.  R.  A.  Seligman,  New  York. 
Secretary  :     S.  Burns  Weston,  Philadelphia. 
Treasurer :     Mrs.   Samuel  S.  Pels,   Philadelphia. 

New  York  :  Prof.  Felix  Adler, 

Prof.  E.  R.  A.  Seligman, 

Mrs.  Frances  Hellman, 

Mr.  R.  B.  Hirsch. 
Philadelphia  :     Dr.  A.  P.  Brubaker, 

Mrs.  S.  S.  Fels, 

Mr.  S.  Burns  Weston. 
Brooklyn  :  Dr.  H.  Delmar  French, 

Mr.  Leslie  Willis  Sprague. 
St.  Loins  :  W.  A.  Brandenberger, 

Mr.  Robert  Moore, 

Mr.  Walter  L.  Sheldon. 
Chicago  :  Mr.  William  M.  Salter, 

Prof.  Nathaniel  Schmidt, 

Miss  Juniata  Stafford. 

FELLOWSHIP  COMMITTEE. 

Prof.  Felix  Adler,  Mr.  E.  S.  Fechheimer, 

Dr.  Albert  P.  Brubaker,  Mr.  Robert  Moore, 

Mr.  Percival  Chubb,  Mr.  William  M.  Salter, 

Dr.  John  L.  Elliott,  Prof.  E.  R.  A.  Seligman, 

Mr.  S.  Burns  Weston. 


ETHICAL     ADDRESSES 


AND 


ETHICAL    RECORD 


FOURTEENTH     SERIES 


Philadelphia 

Ethical  Addresses,  1415  Locust  Street, 

1907. 


Contents 

PAGE. 

Adler  Felix.    Mental  Healing  as  a  Religion  117 

Aladin,  Alexis.     The  Russian  Situation   217 

Brumbaugh,    Martin    G.     Moral   Training   of   the    Young: 

Pedagogical       Principles       and 

Methods    167 

Chubb,  Percival.     Our  Mission  and  Opportunity  161 

Elliott,  John  Lovejoy.     The  Young  People's  Sunday  Morn- 
ing Assembly  i. .   135 

Leuba,  James  H.     The  Moral  Nature  of  the  Child  in  Rela- 
tion to  Moral  Education   287 

MuzzEY,  David  Saville.     Three  Hundred  Years  of  English 

Settlement  in  America  227 

"  "  "  The    Prospects    of    International 

Peace 272 

Salter,  William  M.     The  Conflict  of  the  Catholic  Church 

with  the  French  Republic  199 

"  "  The  Elevation  of  the  Laboring  Classes  143 

"  "  Socialism  in  France  and  Italy 255 

Seligsberg,  Alice  L.    Moral  Instruction  in  the  Public  Schools  294 

Sheldon,  Walter  L.    A  Sentiment  in  Verse  for  Every  Day 

in  the  Year   i 

"  "  Index  to  Authors  Quoted   106 

Spiller,  Gustav.     Progress  of  the  Ethical  Movement 242 

Sprague,  Leslie  Willis.     What  an  Ethical  Culture  Society 

is   For    181 

TcHAYKOVSKY,  NICHOLAS.     The  Russian  Situation  221 

Woods,  Robert  A.     Ethical  Construction  as  Preparation  for 

Ethical  Instruction    304 

Constitution  of  International  Union  of  Ethical  Societies  139 

Constitution  of  the  American  Ethical  Union    311 

The  Moral  Instruction  Movement  Abroad  196 


ETHICAL   LECTURES,   ETC. 

Five  CentN  a  Copy  nnlenn  otherwise  Maied 

By  WALTER  L.  SHELDON 

True  Liberalism. 

What  We  Mean  by  Duty. 

Worship  In  the  Spirit. 

The  New  Woman. 

Good  and  Bad  Side  of  Novel  Reading. 

What  to  Believe :  An  Ethical  Creed. 

Why  Progress  Is  so  Slow. 

Does  Justice  Triumph  in  the  End?     A  Study  of  Shakespeare's  "Lear." 

Why  Prosperity  Does  Not  Always  Bring  Happiness, 

A  Survey  of  the  Nineteenth  Century. 

The  Belief  In  One  God. 

The  Good  Side  to  Adversity. 

What  Makes  Life  Worth  Living? 

Plan  of  an  Ethical  Sunday-School   (two  parts).     10  cents. 

A  Summary  of  the  More  Recent  Views  Concerning  the  Bible  (two  parts). 

10  cents. 
The  Wage  Earners'  Self-Culture  Clubs   (two  parts).  10  cents. 
The  Marriage  Problem  of  To-Day  (two  parts).     10  cents. 
A  Morning  and  Evening  Wisdom  Gem  fdr  Every  Day  In  the  Year   (a 

compilation).     15  cents. 
The  Meaning  of  the  Ethical  Movement. 

How  Far  is  it  Right  to  Make  Happiness  the  Chief  Aim  of  Life? 
True   Heroism   and  What  it  Means. 
Ethics  at  the  Dawn  of  the  Modern  World — An  Historical   Survey.     10 

cents. 
What  It  Means  to  Work  for  a  Cause.     10  cents. 

By  PERCIVAL  CHUBB 

The  Conservative  and  Liberal  Aspects  of  Ethical  Religion. 
Tolstoi's  "Resurrection." 

Ruskin's  Message  to  Our  Times   (two  parts).     10  cents. 
Parsifal  and  the  Quest  of  the  Holy  Grail. 

By  DAVID  SAVILLE  MUZZEY 

The  Ethics  of  the  New  Testament. 
Revelation. 

The    Union    of    Hebrew    and    Christian    Ideals    In   the    Ethical    Culture 
Movemeqt. 

The  following  appear  in  Ethical  Addresses,  10c.  a  copy : 
Inspiration  and  Ethics. 
Authority  and  Ethics. 

Three  Hundred  Years  of  English  Settlement  in  America. 
The  Prospects  of  International  Peace. 

ETHICAL  ADDRESSES,  1415  Locust  Street,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 


ETHICAL  BOOKS 

By  FELIX  ABLER—      ~ 

The  Religion  of  Duty $1.20 

The  Essentials  of  Spirituality  1.00 

Marriage  and  Divorce   50 

Moral  Instruction  of  Children Cloth    1.50 

Paper,  .50;  (By  mail,  .58) 

Life  and  Destiny Cloth    1.00 

Boards       .50 

Creed  and  Deed Cloth      .90 

••       ••        "     Paper,  .50;  (By  mail,  .58) 

By  WILLIAM  M.  SALTER— 

Ethical  Religion  -. 1.00 

First  Steps  in  Philosophy 1.00 

Anarchy  or  Government? 75 

Moral    Aspiration    and    Song    (36    Hymns    with 

Music,  etc.),  half  cloth    35 

By  WALTER  L.  SHELDON— 

An  Ethical  Movement  1,25 

An  Ethical  Sunday-school  1.25 

Old  Testament  Bible  Stories  for  the  Young 1.15 

Lessons  in  the  Study  of  Habits 1.15 

Citizenship  and  the  Duties  of  a  Citizen 1.15 

Duties  in  the  Home  and  the  Family  1.15 

The  Story  of  the  Bible 30 

Class  Readings  in  the  Bible  .50 

The  Life  of  Jesus  for  the  Young 50 

A  Study  of  the  Divine  Comedy  of  Dante 50 

A  Morning  and  Evening  Wisdom  Gem  for  Every 
Day  in  the  Year,  compiled  from  various  au- 
thors, ancient  and  modern 35 

By  STANTON  COIT— 

The  Message  of  Man  Leather    1.00 

••      " Cloth      .75 

By  NATHANIEL  SCHMIDT— 

.  The  Prophet  of  Nazareth 2.50 

The  above  books  may  be  obtained  or  ordered  at  the  Li- 
brarian's table  at  the  Sunday  morning  lectures,  of  the  dif- 
ferent Ethical  Societies,  or  at  the  office  of 
ETHICAL  ADDRESSES,  1415  Locust  St.,  PhUadelphia,  Pa 
TITB  LIBRARY 

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